Thanks THH, I don't think you need to worry about round-the-clock availability or the micro decisions - I'm more concerned that without Fintourist's gentle scolding I'll end up heading down some dumb tech routes or neglecting military defences or ignoring a dangerous neighbour. I'll try to post reports that give a firm idea of what the plan is for the next few turns, and you just need to point out where the plan won't work... But feel free to ask for any info - it'll all help to keep the path clear for us. 
Our military - we also have 20 workers not shown. I think the first job is to get at least three bowmen into all our vulnerable coastal cities. Now that we have longbows and knights for defense these units aren't much help except as meat shields.
On techs our neighbours are the only ones with Paper so we can tell that:
- dtay (Alexander) is
Ahead: Paper, Education, Liberalism and Nationalism (not shown on the screenshot)
Behind: Feudalism, Calendar, HBR, Archery, IW, Machinery & Alphabet
(Interestingly Catapults and Chariots are his only real units, and there aren't many of those... If he wants to start using Nationalism I think he'd be drafting axes right now. So I'd guess Gunpowder will turn up for him soon.)
- Mack (Mehmet) is
Ahead: Music, Guilds, Banking, Paper
Behind: Monotheism, Calendar, Philosophy
(Which way do you think he's going? Please not Economics...)
Our other neighbours are harder to judge, so I haven't been bothering trying. Ichabod has something pretty strong to have rolled over slow. He isn't in bureau yet so I'd guess he used horse archers or catapults. Suttree has catapults and axes and spent a while getting to hereditary rule, so longbows might not be far off. TBSJ have Bureau and Serfdom, so Maces and Longbows are possible. This is where we are on tech - we have everything before here but Compass:
We lost graphs on Mack so the GNP isn't that helpful right now. We're comparable with plako and TBSJ and slightly below dtay but ahead of Ichabod.
(Merry Christmas!)
Our military - we also have 20 workers not shown. I think the first job is to get at least three bowmen into all our vulnerable coastal cities. Now that we have longbows and knights for defense these units aren't much help except as meat shields.
On techs our neighbours are the only ones with Paper so we can tell that:
- dtay (Alexander) is
Ahead: Paper, Education, Liberalism and Nationalism (not shown on the screenshot)
Behind: Feudalism, Calendar, HBR, Archery, IW, Machinery & Alphabet
(Interestingly Catapults and Chariots are his only real units, and there aren't many of those... If he wants to start using Nationalism I think he'd be drafting axes right now. So I'd guess Gunpowder will turn up for him soon.)
- Mack (Mehmet) is
Ahead: Music, Guilds, Banking, Paper
Behind: Monotheism, Calendar, Philosophy
(Which way do you think he's going? Please not Economics...)
Our other neighbours are harder to judge, so I haven't been bothering trying. Ichabod has something pretty strong to have rolled over slow. He isn't in bureau yet so I'd guess he used horse archers or catapults. Suttree has catapults and axes and spent a while getting to hereditary rule, so longbows might not be far off. TBSJ have Bureau and Serfdom, so Maces and Longbows are possible. This is where we are on tech - we have everything before here but Compass:
We lost graphs on Mack so the GNP isn't that helpful right now. We're comparable with plako and TBSJ and slightly below dtay but ahead of Ichabod.
(Merry Christmas!)
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
In progress: Rimworld